Grand Rapids, Michigan’s second-largest city and the hub of the more conservative western side of the state, declared racism as a “public health crisis.”
The Grand Rapids city commission approved a resolution that read in part, “We know that racism is deep and pervasive throughout many systems and policies impacting health. Examples include health care, public education funding structures, criminal justice and sentencing, housing, and wealth-building opportunities.”
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Grand Rapids is considering naming racism a public health crisis to “center and prioritize anti-racism.”
City staff spent more than 200 hours prepping three draft resolutions presented Tuesday: one to declare a climate crisis, the second to support the decriminalization of entheogenic substances, such as magic mushrooms, and the third to name racism a public health emergency.Grand Rapids is considering naming racism a public health crisis to “center and prioritize anti-racism.”
City staff spent more than 200 hours prepping three draft resolutions presented Tuesday: one to declare a climate crisis, the second to support the decriminalization of entheogenic substances, such as magic mushrooms, and the third to name racism a public health emergency.
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After the U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution in favor of teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) last week, the mayors of Michigan’s largest cities won’t say whether they support the resolution.
The Conference of Mayors defines CRT as a “malleable practice [that] critiques how the social construction of race and institutionalized racism perpetuate a racial caste system that relegates people of color to the bottom tiers and recognizes that race intersects with other identities, including sexuality and gender identity.”
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Michigan’s recovery from the massive unemployment endured during the COVID-19 pandemic is among the fastest in the country, last week’s employment numbers indicate.
That assessment is according to a recently released WalletHub report, which ranked the state fifth nationwide for progress made between the previous week and the week of June 21, 2021, and fourth nationwide for the smallest increase in initial unemployment claims between the beginning of 2020 and the week of June 21, 2021.
Michigan was ranked 13th nationwide for quickest unemployment recovery since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
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Eighty-three days into 2021, Grand Rapids-based Above and Beyond Catering owner Kim Smith said she hasn’t recorded a dollar of revenue in 2021 thanks to COVID-19 restrictions enacted by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Catering isn’t alone.
Wedding and funeral owners are pushing back on COVID-19 restrictions killing their business for the last year.
Smith has been in business for 45 years, she told the House Oversight Committee Thursday. Although she’s “done everything to keep afloat” since the state forced her business closed in March of 2020, her revenue is down 93.6%.
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City leaders in Michigan are asking state legislators to adopt policy changes that will prevent 24 cities currently collecting local income taxes from losing up to $250 million next year.
Several mayors held a virtual press conference Monday organized by the Michigan Municipal League (MML), asking the GOP-led legislature to approve a plan with three components.
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A supporter of President Donald Trump recently opened a “MAGA Store” in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area to sell Trump-themed merchandise ahead of the 2020 election.
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The Diocese of Grand Rapids is standing by a priest who is refusing Holy Communion to a popular judge in the area because she is in a same-sex marriage.
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Grand Rapids officials made it known Tuesday they believe illegal immigrants in Michigan should be able to obtain a driver’s license.
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